Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 08.071 October 15, 1998 1) Soviet Yiddish Writers Page (Craig Abernethy) 2) farvos "forverts" un nisht "foroys"? (Noyekh Miller) 3) forverts/forvits and r-dropping (Mikhl Herzog) 4) Julius Adler (Gilles Rozier) 5) Shapiro (Yankel Kurtzman) 6) Shapiro (Jeff Bennett) 7) student looking for klezmer musicians to interview (Ari Davidow) 8) Yidish vi a visnshaftlekher loshn (Shloyme-Khayim (Steve) Cohen) 9) "Glupsk" (Ilya Vinarsky) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 14:51:22 -0400 (EDT) From: "Craig Abernethy" Subject: Soviet Yiddish Writers Page Mendelyaner are cordially invited to visit the webpage derekh erets un dermonung, http://www.angelfire.com/ma/khaver devoted to the work of Soviet-era Yiddish writers. The page currently contains poems by D.Hofshteyn and fiction by D.Bergelson and L.Kvitko. Regards, Craig Abernethy 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 18:14:27 -0400 From: Noyekh Miller Subject: farvos "forverts" un nisht "foroys"? vayl der ofitsieler (un vikhtikster) tsaytung fun di daytshishe sotsial-demokratishe partay hot geheysn "Vorwarts". dort zenen oft dershinen artiklen fun marx, engels, liebknecht, ukd. in italien hot der sotsialistisher tsaytung geheysn "Avanti" (musolini y"sh iz geven amol der redaktor). ikh meyn az dos iz geven mitsad di yidishe sotsialistn in amerike an oysvayz fun solidarishkayt, nisht a nokhkrimenish. Noyekh Miller 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 02:10:29 -0400 (EDT) From: "Mikhl Herzog" Subject: forverts/forvits and r-dropping I think the matter of _Forvits_ is independent of the issue of r-dropping. I'd venture a guess that _Forverts_ in Yiddish is strictly a spelling pronunciation. In the Yiddish of my family of non-r-droppers, the newspaper was called _Der Forvits_ and the word _forverts_ simply did not occur. The name of the newspaper always smacked of the _daytshmerish_ that characterized the language of the Trade Unions and the _bavegungen_. We knew _forverts/Vorwaerts_ from the German songs of the International Brigade. As for Yiddish r-dropping: As Ellen Prince points out (08:067), in a large part of Central Yiddish, post-vocalic r-dropping is the rule. HOWEVER, this generally has a decided impact on the quality of the preceding vowel. It permits me, for example, to distinguish clearly between the adjectives in the phrases _a gite man_ and _a git@ fro:_ (something a real Litvak may have trouble with). While such a distinction would not be evident from the spelling (_forvits_ would still be spelled with an "r"), as a "native" _forvits_-sayer, I can testify that the absence of _r_ is not reflected in the vowel. Could it be that the _r_ was never dropped because the word was imported without an _r_ in the first place? Other borrowings suffered a similar fate in Yiddish. The foreign word _fanatish_ was first rendered by the familiar _farnarisht_ (semantically, perhaps, a justified misinterpretation). In any event, I doubt that Central Yiddish r-dropping accounts for _forvits_. If anything, there is another, less well-known aspect of Yiddish r-dropping that may provide a linguistically more reasonable, albeit geographically unlikely explanation: At locations in an area to the South and West of Budapest, Yiddish is characterized by PRE-CONSONANTAL r-dropping, without any impact on the preceding vowel. Thus, _shvats_ 'black', _dot_ 'there', _fatik_ 'ready/finished'. Still, I'd be reluctant to invoke this as an explanation for the widespread Yiddish rendition _forvits_. A gut un gezunt yor aykh alemen. Mikhl Herzog 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 11:59:06 -0400 (EDT) From: Bibliotheque Medem Subject: Julius Adler tayere Mendelyaner, ikh zukh di date ven der groyser yidisher aktyor Yulius Adler (geboyrn in 1880) iz geshtorbn. A dank Gilles Rozier 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 17:32:33 -0400 (EDT) From: "Gilda and Bob Kurtzman" Subject: Shapiro The family name Shapiro may be derived from the German town of Spier (Speyer). I think there may be a more ancient,if you will, source. There is the Hebrew word shapir (shapira) from Aramaic meaning fine, excellent, good, handsome, well. Moadim l'simcha, Yankel Kurtzman 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 08:16:27 -0400 (EDT) From: Jeffrey Bennett Subject: Shapiro In regards to the name, Shapiro, I learned that it comes from the Hebrew "Shin-Pey-Resh" meaning, "beauty". Jeff Bennett 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 10:18:03 -0400 (EDT) From: Ari Davidow Subject: student looking for klezmer musicians to interview Re Larry Rosenwald's question [08.067]: I would humbly suggest that the jewish-music mailing list, which I moderate, would be a great place to look for klezmer musicians (although it is not the only jewish music topic therein). To join the mailing list, send e-mail to: listproc@shamash.org with the one-line message subscribe jewish-music YourFirstName YourLastName substituting an actual name for "YourFirstName YourLastName". The student might also be able to locate local musicians through the "bands by location" page of my KlezmerShack: http://www.well.com/user/ari/klez/contacts/klezbyloc.html Ari Davidow 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 11:25:58 -0400 (EDT) From: "Steve Cohen" Subject: Yidish vi a visnshaftlekher loshn Tayere Mendelistn: Reb Dan Gross (vol. 8.069) hot gefregt vegn Yidish vi a visnshaftlekher loshn. Dos iz far mir zeyer interesant (ikh bin a fizikalish-khemiker), un ikh hob geklibn an erekh 20 visnshaftlekhe bikher (oder zeyere kopyes fun mikrofilmen), vos nemen arayn andere bikher vos zaynen *nit* in veb-Shtetls a reshime. Ikh veys nit keyn bikher vos git tsu a visnshaftlekhn referat; dos rov zaynen tekstn, populere-, verter-, un kinder- bikher. Ale mendelistn zoln visn az di temes vegn ot-di bikher nemen arayn ale visnshaftlekhe subyektn: Matematik, fizik, khemye, byologye, tekhnik, geologye, meditsin, astronomye. Vos is oykh interesant iz vi azoy hobn di sovyet-yidn un mayrev-yidn (d"h, amerikaner) oysgetrakht farsheydene yidishe verter far naye inyomim. Haynt shraybn dos rov visnshaftslayt af english, bloyz a bisl daytsh, frantseyzish, rusish, khinezish, yapanish iber gor der velt. Afile di kontinentale-eyropeyishe visnshafts-zhurnaln heybn zikh on nitsn english. Ikh meyn az s'iz nit azoy vikhtik az me zol oysfinden af Yidish; nor az me zol zayn *redn* vegn visnshaftlekhe inyonim af Yidish. Dos iz farvos ikh hob geshribn, mit etlekhe andere Mendelistn, a khemye-verterbukh af Yidish, mit der metrishe sistem, klolim far gebn a nomen di farbindungen, a reshime elementn, un azoy vayter (vu zoln mir es opdrukn?). In Sholem Bergers elektronisher zhurnal hob ikh mit Reb Leybl Botvinikn geshribn an artikl vegn elekhtrokhemye. Lomir hofn az der Forverts vet hobn mer rubrikn vegn visnshaft oykh. mit derekh-erets, Shloyme-Khayim (Steve) Cohen 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 12:12:18 -0400 (EDT) From: Ilya Vinarsky Subject: "Glupsk" Re Naomi Fatouros' question [08.069]: The novel by Mendele that mentions Glupsk is _The Journeys of Benjamin the Third_. Abramovich must have lifted the name (could somebody please check the dates?) from the novel _The History of a Town_ by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. It is a satire on Russian history presented as the administrative record of a town named Glupov (Foolsville). Vasily/Iosif Grossman was born in Berdichev, and set some of his stories there. Unsure how much of it has been translated into English. The film "Commissar" is an adaptation of one of them. Ilya Vinarsky ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 08.071 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu Mendele on the Web: http://www2.trincoll.edu/~mendele http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/mendele.html